DrayTek Interview – A Brief Look Inside a Router Manufacturer

Q7. Many broadband routers tend to ship with 1Gps Ethernet (LAN / WAN) ports as standard, which has been the norm for quite a few years now.

However, some ISPs are already offering 2Gbps and 10Gbps broadband connections via FTTH (more common in other countries than the UK), while home wireless networks can also benefit from multi-Gigabit local connectivity under 802.11ax (including some 802.11ac Wave 2 implementations).

Despite these changes we’ve yet to see many consumer routers being released with support for the 2.5G+ speed (or faster Ethernet standards) for wired LAN connections. Why is this and when can we expect that to start changing?

ANSWER:

The headline speeds for wireless often appear to be above 1Gbps Ethernet but in reality, for consumer products they’ve always been lower in terms of real-world throughput. WiFi 6 makes it feasible for 1Gbps + throughput to be seen, so the question of the LAN being a bottleneck become more relevant.

For the average home user, it’s less likely they’ll have a LAN side device which is capable of speeds above 1G although there are clearly examples in the area of network attached storage. I think developments on this will keep pace with the LAN demands.

Q8. DrayTek’s routers have tended to follow the same broad strokes of physical design style for as long as we can remember. Is this a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (i.e. functionality over form) or do you plan any more radical looking visual router designs in the future?

ANSWER:

You have to admit there have been some strange looking devices released over the years, described as anything from a dead spider to a space ship.

Business class routers often need to be rack or wall mounted with the majority of our portfolio fitting into this category there has been no reason to justify a change, our customers like the look and the design shows quality, the port and LED layout means you don’t need to move the product to check cables, the power switch cant accidentally be hit.

So as you say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Q9. Over the next few years it seems likely, as many operators retire copper lines and go full fibre, that demand will rise for broadband routers that can support VoIP phones (via FXO / FXS ports). At present only the top models in each of DrayTek’s ranges tend to include this sort of support but as demand rises then do you expect this to become a common requirement?

ANSWER:

Yes and a larger selection of VoIP products are on our roadmap, we will look to bring these out as demand increases.

Q10. At present 2020 is shaping up to be a very different year from previous ones, not least due to the impact of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on complex supply chains and network deployments. Can you tell us a bit about what sort of impact the pandemic has had on your company, if any, and how you’ve had to adapt?

ANSWER:

Obviously working from home for many of our colleagues has been a new experience, some have taken to it well others prefer the distinct break between the work environment and the home environment. Customer meetings have all been on line via different media channels and we fully expect this to be a large part of the “new normal”.

A large proportion of our customer base is the ISP industry, we have noticed a significant increase for information and requirements for VPN and LTE specifically where people working from home had capped data limits. On lockdown day we had a massive spike in sales for LTE and VPN products, with the exception of working from home the only key impact was having to fly stock in and the associated additional expense.

Q11. Finally, what, in your view, are the top five new features that you expect router manufactures to be adding over the next few years and why?

ANSWER:

Really good question. The first is clearly Fibre. VDSL is an excellent technology for speed and reliability, but there will be a migration to fibre to the home, which has the potential to deliver greater speeds and reliability.

Secondly, businesses management of their wider area network is going to be critical. The technology that will deliver this is called Software Defined WAN (SDWAN), and DrayTek will soon launch a platform for SDWAN.

Thirdly, recently events have highlighted strengths or perhaps weaknesses for employee’s ability to work from home. So, in the coming months there is likely be a focus of deploying technology to enable a greater home working capability in businesses.

Companies will look at deploying more technology within their businesses, either remote working capability, faster availability of data etc. They will look at technology companies like DrayTek who not only have the technology itself, but the means of supporting their hardware to get complicated features working to customer requirements. One of the greatest strengths of DrayTek is our ability to offer an excellent support service that enables customers to tap into support channels to help unlock the complex technology in our routers, firewalls, switches, and wireless products.

Fifth the obvious ones and some already exist – 802.11ax, Ethernet ports will be dual function and able to work with POT’s and also provide PoE, Bluetooth connectivity, built in LTE, touch screen control panel, SD-WAN.

We’d just like to take a moment to thank Richard for finding the time to engage with some of our questions.